The PCT Resupply Guide: Class of 2017 Survey

“Wait, so do you carry all your food for the entire hike with you the entire time?”

If you’re thinking about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, be ready for people to ask you this question (among others) as you make your way down the trail. Nobody is carrying the calories required for a PCT thru-hike in their backpack. The more accurate question? What does your resupply strategy look like?

Using the data I collected as part of the 2017 Pacific Crest Trail Thru-hiker Survey, I’ve compiled the following information to construct a useful picture of what a PCT resupply strategy looks like (spoiler alert: it doesn’t involve carrying five months worth of food).

NOTES ON THE DATA

• This year we had 566 completed surveys (up 48% from last year).
• The responses to some questions have been sorted and colorized to normalize the results and (hopefully) make them more useful (e.g. hikers who finished vs. hikers who ended early).
• Not everyone meticulously documents the stats of their thru-hike (I guess I’m weird). Therefore, the data is not 100% guaranteed accurate. However, I am hoping people gave their best guesstimates when answering questions.
• For simplicity’s sake, I refer to the survey respondents collectively as this year’s “class“. Remember that this is only a fraction of this year’s PCT hikers and is not necessarily representative of the entire PCT Class of 2017.
• If you’re that kind of person and you find some small discrepancy in the data, get over it – may I remind you we aren’t dealing in exactness here. However, if you find any large or obfeeus, please let me know.

Here are the labels used to differentiate hiker segments:

• THRU: Thru-hikers (all)
• FINISH: Thru-hikers (all) who completed the entire PCT
• NOFINISH: Thru-hikers (all) who did NOT complete the PCT

If NO LABEL has been appended to a data point, then I used all data collected.

What food to send in PCT resupply boxes

Now that we know how many resupply boxes we’re going to send, let’s take a closer look at what you should you be PUTTING INSIDE of said boxes (because, unfortunately, birthday cakes and pizzas aren’t very practical resupply options).

The TOP COMMENTS I got from hikers regarding the food in their resupplies were:

1. More variety in boxes (you can only eat so many Snickers and tortillas)
2. Healthier food in boxes (empty calories only get you so far)
3. Less food in boxes (you’ll be stopping more than you think)

So what are you going to be eating out on the trail? Berries and dirt? Probably. But as far as things you can purchase in town go, here are some of this year’s favorite (and least favorite) snacks:

How frequently to resupply on the PCT

Another question on the resupply agenda is “How often do I want to resupply?”

This is incredibly difficult for hikers to accurately predict before starting the trail because few people know what their pace is going to be or what their still unknown trail friends will want to do (just remember to hike your own hike).

Stopping more frequently means less time spent hiking (which before starting your hike might sound like a bad thing), but it also means that you will not be carrying as much weight (in food) between your resupplies (lighter = better).

So how many stops did the Class of 2017 make on their thru-hikes?

• FINISH – AVERAGE RESUPPLY STOPS MADE | 26 (σ = 6.8)

Despite the reported number of resupply stops being 26, the number of reported town stops (when hikers were asked to list specifically where they made stops) was 39.5. Interesting. To be safe, let’s unscientifically split the difference and call it an even 32 – meaning you’re resupplying EVERY 83 MILES (134 km) on average. If you don’t want to carry more than seven days worth of food (which is a lot), then you need to be AVERAGING 11.8 MILES per day (18.9 km); if you can’t hike 11.8 mi / 18.9 km in a single day, then you have other preparations to do before worrying about your PCT resupply strategy.

How many miles per day did this year’s PCT Class average? 18.23 mi / 29.34 km.

Obviously, stretches between resupply can vary greatly (e.g. Kennedy Meadows to VVR) and some will be a lot longer (or shorter) than others, but this should give you a rough idea of what to expect.

The average PCT resupply plan

Based on survey responses we can piece together what an “average” Pacific Crest Trail hiker’s resupply looked like for a 2017 thru-hike.

Now that we know how many boxes we’re mailing (10), where we’re mailing them to, what’s going in them, and how often we want to stop for resupplies, we can focus on arguably the most important question: where exactly are we going to stop?

NOTE: The percentage of hikers who resupplied at each of the following places has been coded as follows: OVER 66%, 33-66%, LESS THAN 33%. Also, stops are listed in geographical order from south to north.

How would our average Pacific Crest Trail thru-hiker have used his or her 32 resupply stops based on this information?

It would look something like this (COLORED NAMES indicate that sending a box was prefered by this year’s class):

And lastly, what about hitchhiking into town? I asked hikers what resupply stops (if any) they had difficulty making it to from the trail. The top responses were (from south to north):

1. Lake Isabella (Desert)
2. Etna (Northern California)
3. Independence from Kearsarge Pass (Sierra)
4. Lone Pine (Sierra)
5. Yosemite Valley (Sierra)
6. Chester (Northern California)

If there is ANYTHING you can think of that would make this information more useful (or any more resupply-related cross-referencing you would like to see), then please LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know.

FOR MORE ON PCT RESUPPLY, CHECK OUT THESE POSTS.